As a student aged 17-20 I worked as a temporary auxiliary nurse in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for the three months of every summer vacation. I loved the job and coped with unpleasant events involving all sorts of mess and smelly stuff, but the one thing I couldn't handle was when Sister asked me to take tea into the relatives' room after a death on the ward. Their shock, devastation and grief was so moving that I couldn't be 'professional' or 'detached' and found myself in tears out of sympathy and compassion. Sister eventually wisely chose another nurse to do the teas for newly-bereaved relatives.